LETTERS AND NOTES ON THE
MANNERS, CUSTOMS, AND CONDITIONS OF
NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS

by George Catlin

(First published in London in 1844)

CONTENTS

LETTER-NO. 1.
Wyoming, birth-place of the Author - His former Profession - First cause of his Travels
to the Indian Country -Delegation of Indians in Philadelphia - First start to the Far West,
in 1832 -Probable extinction of the Indians - Former and present numbers of - proper
mode of approaching them, and estimating their character

LETTER-NO, 3. MOUTH OF YELLOW STONE, UPPER
MISSOURI.
Character of Missouri River - Beautiful prairie shores - Picturesque clay bluffs - First
appearance of a steamer at the Yellow Stone, and curious conjectures of the Indians
about it - Fur Company's Establishment at the mouth of Yellow Stone - M'Kenzie - His
table and politeness - Indian tribes in this vicinity

LETTER-NO. 6. MOUTH OF YELLOW STONE, UPPER
MISSOURI.
Medicines or mysteries-medicine-bag---origin of the word medicine - Mode of forming
the medicine-bag - Value of the medicine-bag to the Indian, and materials for their
construction - Blackfoot doctor or medicine-man-his mode of curing the sick - Different
offices and importance of medicine-men

LETTER-NO. 8. MOUTH OF YELLOW STONE, UPPER
MISSOURI.
Further remarks on the Crows-Extraordinary length of hair - Crow and Blackfeet
women -Their modes of dressing and painting - Differences between the Crow and
Blackfoot languages - Different bands-Different languages, and numbers of the
Blackfeet Knisteneaux-Assinneboins, and Ojibbeways - Ojibbeways - Chief
and wife - Assinneboins a part of the Sioux - Wi-jun-jon (a chief) and wife - His visit to
Washington

LETTER-NO. 15. MANDAN VILLAGE, UPPER
MISSOURI.
Astonishment of the Mandans at the operation of the Author's brush - The Author
installed medicine or medicine-man - Crowds around the Author - Curiosity to see and
to touch him - Superstitious fears for those who were painted - Objections raised to
being painted - The Author's operations opposed by a Mandan doctor, or medicine-
man, and how brought over

LETTER-NO. 16. MANDAN VILLAGE, UPPER
MISSOURI.
An Indian beau or dandy - A fruitless endeavour to paint one - Mah-to-toh-pa (the four
bears), second chief of the tribe - The Author feasted in his wigwam - Viands of the
feast - Pemican and marrow-fat - Mandan pottery - Robe presented - Mah-to-toh-pa's
exploits in battle

LETTER-NO. 17. MANDAN VILLAGE, UPPER
MISSOURI.
Polygamy - Reasons and excuses for it - Marriages, how contracted - Wives bought
and sold - Paternal and filial affection-Virtue and modesty of women - Early marriages -
Slavish lives and occupations of the Indian women - Pomme blanche - Dried meat -
Caches - Modes of cooking, and times of eating - Attitudes in eating - Separation of
males and females in eating - the Indians moderate eaters - Some exceptions - Curing
meat in the sun, without smoke or salt - The wild Indians eat no salt

LETTER-NO. 40. MOUTH OF FALSE WASHITA.
Sickness at the Mouth of False Washita - one-half of the regiment start for the
Camanchees, under command of Col. Dodge - Sickness of General Leavenworth, and
cause of

LETTER-NO. 41. GREAT CAMANCHEE VILLAGE.
Great Camanchee village, Texas - A stampedo - Meeting a Carrianchee war party, and
mode of approaching them - They turn about and escort the Dragoons to their village -
Immense herds of buffaloes - Buffaloes breaking through the ranks of the Dragoons
regiment - Wild horses - sagacity of - Taking the wild horse with laso, and "breaking
down," - Chain of the Rocky Mountain - Approach to the Camanchee village -
Camanchee horses - prices of

LETTER-NO. 43. GREAT CAMANCHEE VILLAGE.
The regiment advance towards the Pawnee village - Description and view of the
Pawnee village - Council in the Pawnee village - Recovery of the son of Judge Martin,
and the presentation of the three Pawnee and Kiowa women to their own people -
Return of the regiment to the Camanchee village - Pawnee Picts , portraits of

LETTER-NO. 44. CAMP CANADIAN, TEXAS.
Camp Canadian - Immense herds of buffaloes - Great slaughter of them - Extraordinary
sickness of the command - Suffering from impure water-sickness of the men - Death of
General Leavenworth and Lieutenant M'Clure

LETTER-NO. 45. FORT GIBSON, ARKANSAS.
Return to Fort Gibson - Severe and fatal sickness at that place - Death of Lieutenant
West - Death of the Prussian Botanist and his servant - Indian Council at Fort Gibson -
Outfits of trading-parties to the Camanchees - Probable consequences of - Curious
minerals and fossil shells collected and thrown away - Mountain ridges of fossil shells,
of iron and gypsum - Saltpetre, and salt

LETTER-NO. 46. ALTON, ILLINOIS.
The Author starting alone for St. Louis, a distance of 500 miles across the prairies - His
outfit - The Author and his horse "Charley" encamped on a level prairie - Riqua's village
of Osages - Crossing the Osage - Boonville on the Missouri - Author reaches Alton, and
starts for Florida

LETTER-NO. 48. ST. LOUIS.
Flatheads, Nez Perces - Flathead mission across the Rocky Mountains to St. Louis.-
Mission of the Reverends Messrs. Lee and Spalding beyond the Rocky Mountains -
Chinooks, portraits - Process of flattening the head - Similar custom of Choctaws -
Choctaw tradition - Character and disposition of the Indians on the Columbia

LETTER-No. 50. FORT SNELLING, FALL OF ST. ANTHONY.
Fort Snelling, near the Fall of St. Anthony - Description of the Upper Mississippi -
"Dubuque's Grave" - Fall of St. Anthony - Fort Snelling - The Sioux

LETTER-NO. 51. FORT SNELLING, FALL OF ST. ANTHONY.
Fourth of July at the Fall of St. Anthony, and amusements - Dog dance of the Sioux -
Chippeways making the portage around the Fall of St. Anthony - Chippeway bark
canoes - Mandan canoes of skins - Sioux and Chippeway snow-shoes - Snow-shoe
dances

LETTER-NO. 58. NORTH WESTERN FRONTIER.
North Western Frontier - General appearance and habits of the North American Indians
- Jewish customs and Jewish resemblances - Probable origin of the Indians -
Languages - Government - Cruelties of punishments - Indian queries on white man's
modes - Modes of war and peace - Pipe of peace dance - Religion - Picture writing and
totems - Policy of removing the Indians - Trade and small-pox, the principal destroyers
of the Indian tribes - Murder of the Root-Diggers and Riccarees - Concluding remarks